4yearold children are efficient tablet users before their reading skills are even fully developed. Pen and paper correspondence is becoming obsolete. Is today’s society ready for technology’s dominion over all aspects of our lives?
Being human is defined these days not so much by our biology as by technology and how technology is gradually becoming a part of us, just as our eyes and hands are part of us. For example, take the technological “prosthetic device” most of us have attached to our hand constantly: the smartphone. It’s with you everywhere, even in the most intimate of moments. It’s an incredibly useful tool, but it also satisfies your craving for connection, providing the reassurance of being present in the ever-growing and constantly changing online community, calming your fears of missing out on the next big news item broadcast on Twitter. But is technology inversely proportional to society? Have we lost the race over who controls who?
Technology might be advancing faster than we care to admit or have the perception to realize, but this doesn’t mean it’s bad for society. Today more than ever, technology is changing education, making it decidedly affordable, democratic, and fun. From vocabulary improving software to speed reading improvement mobile apps, technology has never been a more faithful servant in the cause of advancing education.
With technology and its tools now affordable for and accessible by more and more people, society can finally take steps towards achieving a more fair and democratic status quo. People who otherwise couldn’t get into college can now enroll in one of the thousands of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that universities from around the world offer. Fifteen years ago you had a 6digit debt by the time you finished a fouryear undergraduate program. Today you can enroll in undergraduate courses free or for a fraction of the cost.
To consider technology as evil and the onset of the loss of human agency is to ignore the numerous ways technology helps us on a daily basis. It boosts our productivity, hones our skills, and helps us become better in small and large ways. These modern tools take learning out of the classroom and let us take new knowledge everywhere. They allow us to read on an e-reader while on the subway, or practice our spelling skills on a spelling bee app while waiting for the bus to school. Technology is what we make of it. It’s not all bad, but it’s not all good either. It takes responsibility and conscious decisions to use technology to benefit yourself in particular, and society more generally, but no one can deny the potential for today’s technology and tomorrow’s innovations – to promote learning and education.
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